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| The Great Blue Hill. |
What an incredible show! I am still reveling in the happiness three days later! My friend and I arrived at the Historic Prowse Farm in Canton, MA for the Life is Good Festival at about 4PM. Our goal was to pick up our passes, tour the festival grounds, grab something to eat, and settle into our spots for the show.
Our passes needed to be picked up at Will Call upon arrival. After traveling from the parking lot to the festival grounds via the super efficient shuttle, we proceeded to the Will Call tent. My tickets for entry were waiting...however, my passes for side stage viewing were missing. Of course anxiety set in...but the Life is Good staff is wonderful and they assured me my passes would be found and delivered within an hour. They allowed us to go into the festival and told us to return in 45 minutes or so.
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| Life Is Good Food Stalls. |
Let me just say, what a beautiful setting for a festival. Prowse Farm is an amazing piece of land with a lovely meadow and a pond in the center. This historic property boasts the Great Blue Hill as it's backdrop. The festival grounds are clean with trash/recycle/compost repositories within every few yards. Staffers are stationed at these repositories to help you make decisions as to where your trash needs to go. It's quite incredible! Children pranced, danced, and frolicked in the meadow as their parents looked on from their blankets. It was such a wonderful, family friendly atmosphere. Music played from one of the three stages at all times. An overwhelming positive feeling and good vibes were present for the entire evening.
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| Summer Shack Ribs, Cole Slaw, Kettle Chips, and Magic Hat. |
Delicious smells wafted through the air from the line of food stalls that met us upon entering. After walking the grounds and checking out the different areas we decided to have a bite to eat. We split the ribs and an order of kettle chips from the Summer Shack booth. Needing a beverage to wash that down we each selected a Magic Hat #9....it's got a great apricot finish...must find this at my local package store!! Both the ribs and kettle chips were great and hit the spot quite nicely!
We finished our food and beer and then it was time to check for the passes. Upon arrival at the Will Call tent we were greeted by the wonderfully friendly and helpful Chelsea who had our passes ready to go! YAY! We were golden! I was so excited to learn that our passes were actually listed as artist's guest passes and would give us full backstage access. Omigosh! Hyperventilation!
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| Life Is Good Artist Hospitality Area |
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| Beverages! |
Off we went to the backstage entrance, proudly donning our wristbands! Sure enough, we were allowed right in and treated like queens! And the first face we saw upon entering the artist hospitality area is celebrity chef Ming Tsai! (As an aside...call me crazy...but the best perk might just have been the REAL bathrooms as opposed to the Port-A-Potties!)
We needed another one of those Magic Hat #9's! As we were in line, who popped up?? Brian Dunne, drummer extraordinaire! As always, he was super nice and we were so happy to see him. Chatting away with Brian I suddenly felt an arm around my shoulder....ELIOT LEWIS! So great to see him and talk...it had been a few months...always glad to catch up!!
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| Me, behind the soundboard. |
We still needed that beer! HA! Back in line we went like giddy school girls! 2 Magic Hat #9's please! The artist hospitality area was a great space. Lots of areas to relax and enjoy the music and food. Beautiful tents, chairs, pillows, and floral arrangements. We found a nice little seating area and took in the surroundings.
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| Sea of people! |
We could hear The Roots playing in the background at the Positive Purpose Stage (they were supposed to be on the Main Stage however some of the band ran into some travel issues which forced the stage swap with Dawes). It was getting close to show time so we took our places behind the soundboard at the Main Stage. We could look out and see The Roots finishing up their set.
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| Teleprompter laptop |
Andrea, my favorite Production Assistant, arrived and took her place behind the ever important laptop which controls the teleprompter on stage. She promised me a set list after the show! (And came through as always! Thanks, Andrea!)
The butterflies hit! Out of nowhere! It's that pre-show excitement/nervousness/elation. It happens every time! Then we see the guys coming up on stage, waiting off to the side. Wooo! We are about to get started. Daryl donned his guitar. Porter and John waved to us! All of the guys were casually chatting. Each one with a smile on his face. Here we go!! The band ripped into Out Of Touch! Being a festival they decided to go with a set list used previously at the Ryman Auditorium show in Nashville earlier this year.
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| Happy Daryl! |
I will say that they played one of THE best versions of Uncanny that I have ever heard. It was the perfect combination of funky and soulful! The crowd simply ate it up! Daryl and John were both loving the crowd right back. Daryl had very few issues with his monitors and even the sound tech was rocking out! At one point John did have trouble hearing drums but that was quickly remedied. Looking out on the sea of people, I was so proud of my favorite band.
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| John Oates in the zone! |
After the show we spoke with Paul Pesco for a few moments then headed back to the hospitality area. One more celebratory beverage was in order! Daryl Hall & John Oates had once again proved that they can deliver a stellar show that is fresh and fun even after 40 years.
Next on deck....The Borgata - Atlantic City, NJ on October 4th and Tower Theater - Upper Darby, PA on October 5th. Until then...Do It For Love! x K
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| Daryl moves the hair from his face. |
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| Set list and passes. |
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| Daryl & Charlie |
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| The fellas. |
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| Joe and D chat between sets. |
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| Charlie and Porter |
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| The Professor |
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| Paul Pesco snaps and audience pic. |
